A Wanderer’s Exploration of the English Lake District

£350.00

Some achievements deserve proper recognition

In life, some numbers are more significant than others. The birthdays of loved ones, the anniversaries of special occasions, the milestones we all reach.

For a select group of people, the number 214 has a similar importance.

It’s the number of Wainwrights, the hills and mountains of the Lake District as first described in A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells, back in the 1950s & 60s. Since then, many have made it their mission to experience them all.

As anyone who’s explored this magnificent corner of England will attest, walking in the fells can be challenging. There are vertiginous peaks and crests, clouds that rapidly descend to obliterate your visibility, bogs that suck you up to your knees. But of course, this is all part of the experience—being enveloped by nature and the elements in one of the most breathtaking landscapes in the country.

Such moments deserve proper recognition. This remarkable map allows you to do just that.

Like the fells themselves, it’s made of sturdy stuff. It’s printed by Ted Chau on heavy museum-quality archival stock using long life pigment inks—and heat-mounted on aluminium reinforced Kapa board. It’s framed by Youdell’s in Kendal, while the pins are sourced from artisan pin-maker, Moore of Pennsylvania.

More than a map, it’s an object of genuine beauty—one that lists the fells and elegantly brings to life, with a gently shelving line, their different heights. Those lines also offer you space to record the details of each ascent—the date, weather and other memorable facts. Meanwhile, the map itself is fragmented with small triangular shapes, giving it a pattern that’s redolent of triangulation points and peaks.

Above all else, this is an interactive map, one that allows the owner to celebrate the experience of each fell by moving a pin from the outside dock to the explored peak.

The result is an object that is both work of art and, like the Wainwrights themselves, an ever-changing landscape.